Our fifth show dealt with reviewing the Top 10 Events in the 2011-2012 school year. Penny started the show by re-introducing us to common core standards, Urban Prep & Gary Comer's 100% college acceptance rates, and the turnover in CPS's central office. Next, Parker introduced the new evaluation system, Brizzard's hiring, and Chicago's election of Rahm. Lastly, Nick tackled CPS principals leaving their posts, the longer school day proposal, student, parent, and teacher activism as well as the record number of school closings/turnarounds.

Our fourth show dealt with common core standards. To start the episode, we broke down common core standards by explaining the rationale behind them and how they work. Secondly, we each discussed the upsides and the downside of common core standards. Lastly, we also shared how excited each of us are for common core standards and how we believe that we can impact education.

Here are some links to the articles that we discussed in this episode:

Our third show dealt with a number of bills being presented by Illinois lawmakers in Springfield. These bills include limiting class sizes, stopping the massive numbers of school closings, the CPS enrollment system, prohibiting charter schools from fining students, and requiring the CPS CEO to have proper credentials in order to run the district.

As these are some heavy topics, the conversation got tense at moments but as always the dialogue was 100% real talk. We also welcomed our first guest Ashley Gonzales. Her insight into education from a non-teacher perspective really helped to facilitate an even deeper discussion about the validity of and more importantly the necessity of some of these proposed bills.

Here are some links to the articles that we discussed in this episode:

Our second show dealt with the estimated $700 million budget facing CPS, student input on teacher evaluations, and a longer school day. We talked about the implications of district-wide cuts in CPS and how that impacts student learning. We also discussed the importance of student feedback with regards to the effectiveness of the teaching staff. Lastly, we dissected the ramifications of a longer school day with the aforementioned financial constraints.

Here are some links to the articles that we discussed in this episode:

Our first show dealt with recent School Closings in CPS. We talked about Mayor Emanuel and CEO Brizard's rationale behind the school closings and the community response to it. The community responses were plentiful and included the opinions of school leaders, parents, students, teachers, and community leaders.

Here are some links to the articles that we discussed in this episode: